Shirley Bailes:
"They know me by my name."

Shirley Bailes of Gulf Shores has been to the Alabama Gulf Coast Imaging Center many times. "They know my name," she says,"I have had many lab tests, bone density tests, mammograms and others. The people there are always so nice, and it is so convenient."

Bailes has also been an inpatient at South Baldwin Regional Medical Center four times and has gone to the SBRMC Emergency Dept. several times with a TIA (transient ischemic attack or small stroke). "They always do their very best," she says, "if I ever had a heart attack, I would want them."

Bailes and her husband, Ted, moved to the Alabama Gulf Coast ten years ago from Dallas. Having lived in several states and having worked as a medical staff secretary in North Carolina, Shirley Bailes knows good health care when she sees it. She gives lots of credit to her primary care physician, Dr. Jeannie Birkenhauer, her neurologist, Dr. George Graves, and her pain management specialist, Dr. Steven Hankins. Among her her favorite health care providers, though, are the staff at the imaging center. "I've had problems with my veins in the past," she says, "they have to try several times to get blood. Here, they get it on the first try with no pain."

The Bailes have four children: Brent (wife, Susan), and Daryn (wife, Diane) live in Huntsville; daughter Taryn is an art teacher at Daphne Elementary School; Darling (husband, Mike) lives in Philadelphia. They have four grandchildren, Bryn, Truett, Josh and Rose.
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Tammy Murray:
"It brings peace of mind."

SBRMC Acting CEO Mike Neuendorf recently received the following letter:

Dear Mr. Neuendorf:

Last week, my children and I travelled to Orange Beach for our annual "Fall Break" trip. Since we come from Oklahoma and only have 3 days to spend at the beach, we try to make every minute count. One of my 9 year old twins started feeling ill on Thursday and was running a fairly high fever by Friday night.

Not knowing any doctors in the area, I cannot tell you how relieved I was to find the Urgent Care Center. We have a facility very similar to yours in our town where we go for all of our minor illnesses. I was so excited to find the clinic because I really did not feel the emergency room was necessary, and where else can you go when you are a visitor, it's Friday night, and you have a sick child?

Dr. McAtee was the doctor working and he was exceptional in treating my son. He did a thorough examination, a strep test and had the prescription called in for me. By Saturday afternoon, my son was better and ready to enjoy our last day at the beach.

I come from Oklahoma to Orange Beach with my 4 children, 2 or 3 times a year, and it is wonderful to know there is a facility where we are now established if an illness occurs. It brings a great peace of mind while vacationing to know the clinic is there.

Thank you for opening the Urgent Care Center.

Sincerely,

Tammy Murray
Tahlequah, Oklahoma
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Tami Hand: "Little touches meant a lot."

Tami Hand's son, Christopher, was 5 months old when he and his brother, Noel,III, now 3, encountered a big bottle of antibacterial cleaner. Christopher was covered with the strong cleaner, including his eyes.

Tami called 911, and she and Christopher went immediately to the Emergency Department at South Baldwin Regional Medical Center where Dr. Timothy Toms waited for them. "The response time of the team at the hospital was just great," she said. "They started working on Christopher the minute we arrived."

"Dr. Toms quickly washed Christopher's eyes and was on the phone to the poison control center several times to determine the ingredients of the cleaner,"Tami said. "He was awesome!" The Emergency Physician found that the cleaner ingredients should have no long-term effects on the baby, but Tami and Christopher remained at the hospital all day to make sure.

"The nurses were just wonderful," Tami said. "They let my husband (Noel, Jr.) and my mother-in-law come in for a while, but they had to take care of little Noel, so I was alone after that. Cindy Gardner from Admissions came and sat with me, and they brought me lunch. These little touches meant a lot to me and Christopher."

Christopher, who is now 1 year old, is just fine. He saw a pediatric ophthalmologist for his eyes and has been released and pronounced completely healthy. He probably won't remember the accident, but his mother will never forget it.

"It was a traumatic incident for us," Tami said, and the thing that impressed me so much was that everyone at the hospital was so respectful that it was a baby. They brought him blankets and a teddy bear. His eyes were so light sensitive that he couldn't open them, so the nurses darkened the room for him."

In addition to being a busy mother, Tami Hand manages Wolf Bay Landing Condominiums. She has a message for the physicians and staff at SBRMC: "I want the doctors, the hospital and the nurses to know how very much I appreciate their sympathy and compassion, especially for a new mom. They are special!"
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Craig Cotton: "Our Close Family Got Closer."

Hurricane Ivan was the worst storm ever to hit the Alabama Gulf Coast and it came on the night that Joshua Craig Cotton was born at South Baldwin Regional Medical Center. According to Joshua Craig's Dad, Craig, the hurricane brought more than
raging winds and rain to SBRMC that night. "Our close family got closer," Craig said as he described the experience of his son's birth during a hurricane.

The Cotton family— Craig, his wife and Joshua's mother Deana, son C. J. (Craig, Jr.), age three and a half, Craig's parents Ricky and Jeanie Cotton of Orange Beach, and his sister, Nikki, a teacher at Orange Beach Elementary School— spent the entire night of Ivan at the hospital. Joshua, called J.C. by his family now, was born by Caesarean section just before the worst of the storm came ashore in Gulf Shores.

"It is very unusual for a hospital to be flexible enough to accommodate a family like ours in the middle of a major storm," Craig said, "but that is exactly what South Baldwin did. Everyone was so nice, and (SBRMC CEO) Stephen Pennington is a
really good guy. He was working so hard to meet the needs of all the patients. When the power went off around 10 p.m., he found generators and he was constantly checking on all of us."

The Cotton's story actually began on the Tuesday before Ivan struck early Thursday morning, Sept. 16. Deana had been given a due date of Sept. 17 and she knew her baby would be delivered by C-section. She and Craig also knew that Hurricane Ivan would hit the Gulf Coast somewhere. That night, Deana felt some pressure, but she wasn't concerned because the storm had not yet turned toward the Alabama Coast.

On Wednesday morning, Deana's contractions were about 20 minutes apart, and Craig decided "we needed to do something."
So he put his wife, his young son and his Mom in the car and told them to go to the hospital. Then he and his Dad set about boarding up their homes and their rental houses in Elberta and Orange Beach. They talked to Dr. James West, Deana's
obstetrician, who said they were doing the right thing.

"I knew the women and the children were safe because they were with Stephen at the hospital," Craig said, and the later it got the more the hurricane started steering itself toward us." Craig said that he remembered that the birth of his first son, C.J., also by C-section, went rapidly. J.C.'s birth also went rapidly. Craig's Mom called him and asked, "Where are you?" Two minutes later, she called again and asked, "What do you want me to do?"

As it turned out, Craig's Mom was with Deana when J.C. was born, and Craig got to the hospital just as nurses walked out of the operating room with J.C. Then, the whole family settled in to spend the night at the hospital because as Craig put it, "there is no separating us—if one goes, we all go. "They moved us to the Outpatient Services waiting room for safety later and let us take our pillows and blankets and crash there," Craig said. "I passed Stephen several times going in and out of the Emergency Room while he was looking after people. "

When Deana and Craig returned home, they found holes in the roof. no sewer, water on the floor and no electricity. Craig, who is Construction Manager for the City of Foley, hooked up two generators and put Deana, C.J. and J.C. in one bedroom where they stayed until the power came on nine days later. "I know a little bit about a lot of things, but not a lot about one thing, so I figured out how to hook up a generator to the sewer grinder pump enough to empty the tank. It was integrity-building time," Craig said.

In spite of their birthing experience during Ivan, Craig and Deana plan to have more children at SBRMC. "In the last few years, that hospital has been turned around," Craig said. "It still gets a bad rap from some people because of long-past experiences, but it shouldn't because it is just an excellent hospital now, and Stephen Pennington is a true leader. I don't know how we can every repay them for the way they helped us on that night."
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Julia Storm: "Basically, they saved my life."

Julia Storm is such a bright and sunny person today that it is hard to imagine how sick she was just two years ago.

In November, 2004,Storm had surgery at Tulane Medical Center for the removal of a large tumor on her liver. Physicians at Tulane removed sixty percent of her liver. "I went to UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham) first, but they couldn't do the surgery," she said, "so I went to Tulane."

Four days later, at home in Bon Secour, she had a raging fever and was very sick, so she went to the Emergency Department at South Baldwin Regional Medical Center where doctors found an abscess on the remaining forty percent of her liver.

"Basically, they saved my life," Storm said. Radiologist William Jones, M.D. was able to insert a tube into the liver and drain the abscess without disturbing the large incision from her surgery. "If it weren't for Dr. Jones, I wouldn't be here," she said, "he drained two pints of fluid from my liver." Later, Dr. Joseph Ameh, Pulmonary and Critical Care physician, drained another pint of fluid from Storm's lungs. "Those doctors, Dr. Jason Harrah (Family Practice), Dr. David Cain (Surgeon) and the entire nursing staff were right there to help me. They are just unbelievable. They are why I'm still here."

Julia Storm doesn't like to hear negative comments about South Baldwin Regional Medical Center. "When someone says something ugly about that hospital, I say, 'Wait just a minute—you don't know what you're talking about.' What a shame that people aren't just raving about that hospital. I have nothing but praise for those people, and I don't mind bragging about them." she said.

Since 2004, Storm has spent a lot of time at SBRMC. "I have a touch of rheumatoid arthritis and I have my liver checked regularly," she said, "and everybody is always just as sweet as they can be to me. I have never had a problem," she said.

Storm's grandmother, Louise Jackson, age 88, recently was a patient at SBRMC and loves the hospital as much as her granddaughter does. "They treat her right," Storm said. "She is back home and doing well."

Storm has been an Engineering Assistant at Baldwin EMC for six and a half years and she does a lot of volunteer work with her company. She volunteers for Relay for Life, the American Cancer Society and United Way and loves every minute of her service.

Born and raised in Baldwin County, Julia and her husband, Rory, live in Bon Secour right next door to her mother, Lillie Mae Harrison. They have two sons, Dusty, 21, who is a rescue diver for the U.S Coast Guard, and Sawyer, 16, a student at Foley High School.

The Storm family lived in Stuttgart, Germany, for four years and in Fairbanks, Alaska, for six years while Rory was in the U.S. Army. Julia has two brothers. Randy and his wife, Pam, live in Foley, and Danny and his wife, Cheryl, live in Cutoff, LA.

"I'm kin to ninety percent of the people in Baldwin County," Storm said. "We enjoyed living in Europe, and Alaska was beautiful, but we are glad to be home."

Julia Storm is glad to be near her hospital, too. "They know me and I know them," she said. "I feel like everyone there loves me."
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Jackie McLeod: "I won't go anywhere else."    

Jackie McLeod knows South Baldwin Regional Medical Center. Since she moved with her husband to South Baldwin County in 1976, she has had three children at the hospital and numerous tests and procedures. The bottom line? "I won't go anywhere else," she said.

Yes, she is the wife of Dr. Kenneth McLeod, who practices at SBRMC, but that's not why she's so high on the hospital. "I've been there as a patient quite a lot and I know the care is the best I can get anywhere," she said. "They are always so attentive to my needs."

Last May Jackie and her husband were planning a trip to Panama. Dr. McLeod did a complete physical examination on his wife to be sure she was in good health for the trip. He found an obstruction in her carotid artery.

Jackie had a heart catheterization and an ultrasound and was scheduled for surgery at SBRMC within a week. Dr. Peter Pluscht, III, was her surgeon, and she has high praise for him and Dr. William Garretson, who assisted. "It went well," she said. "The nurses were interested and concerned and so very nice to me."

You always hear that hospital food is not the best, but Jackie McLeod declared the food at SBRMC "delicious." She liked the food so much she made a point of complimenting the food service staff.

Food is something Jackie knows a lot about. She owns The Gift Horse, one of Baldwin County's most popular restaurants. Located in a landmark historical building in Foley, The Gift Horse buffet is a sumptuous array of Jackie McLeod's own recipes.

From the signature fried biscuits, apple cheese and praline sweet potatoes to the blueberry muffins and crawfish bisque, the food at The Gift Horse has become famous since Jackie opened her restaurant 24 years ago in a 1912 former hardware store.

A food and nutrition major at Auburn University where she met and married her husband, then a pharmacy student, Jackie literally dreamed of a restaurant in a restored building. In her dream, she actually saw the interior of the present Gift Horse building with its balcony and chandeliers.

She was across the street at the bank one day and saw the hardware store that had been closed for 8 years. She knew that it was the restaurant location of her dreams. She bought it and restored it and opened the restaurant that she wants her customers to feel is "like going to Grandma's at Thanksgiving."

Many of the recipes for the delicious made-from-scratch food at The Gift Horse came from a neighbor of Jackie's when she was growing up in her hometown of Collinsville in North Alabama. The neighbor, Mrs. Clayton, was a dietitician at the school and allowed Jackie to copy her recipes.

Jackie got some of the recipes from friends when she lived in Louisville, KY, but she took the idea for fried biscuits from the Nashville House in Nashville, IN. The owner, who has visited The Gift Horse, wouldn't give her the recipe, so she made up her own.

Jackie and Dr. Kenneth McLeod, a Gulf Shores native, have been married for 43 years and have six children.
Dean and Tyson work at the restaurant and so does Meghan when she isn't at Auburn as a student. Kish is a medical student at Midwestern University in Phoenix, AZ. Chad works for Auburn University, and Jerusha is an anthropologist in California.

Being the wife of a physician is not difficult for Jackie McLeod. "When he's out working, I'm out working," she said. One of her husband's colleagues once observed that the only person he knows who works harder than Dr. McLeod is his wife."

Jackie is proud of her husband and of "her" hospital.
"People here should be so thankful that we have an excellent community hospital and they should support it so we can continue to have it," she said. "Try our hospital first before you go anywhere else. See for yourself how good it is."
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